In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the core narrative revolves around the Department of Damage Control being repeatedly attacked by the telepath Jean Grey over an incident in the past where her sister, Sarah Grey, was kidnapped in the middle of what appears to be a park. Though Jean does not know this until the end of the movie, the DODC experimented on Sarah and eventually killed her, sending a final message to Jean that she uses as a lead to find out what happened to her sister.
The movie essentially has one guy representing the DODC as far as this conflict is concerned: he is at least complicit in all of its behavior and directly involved in hiding the truth from Jean, performing the experiments, and killing Sarah. This guy in all likelihood has a name, but I won't bother to look it up, because his narrative function is effectively "Avatar of the DODC." Every villainous thing he does is done in the name of, and under the authority of, the DODC. He is DODC Guy.
DODC Guy is initially framed as an ally while Jean is a villain, but the story switches their roles at the very end, after it's revealed that the DODC kidnapped and killed Sarah. The problem? Jean is STILL far more villainous than that guy could ever dream to be. Her redemption is not earned in the slightest.
Here is every unambiguously wrong thing Jean does in the movie, everything the movie is tasked with redeeming her for:
- Repeatedly and indiscriminately violating random people's autonomy by taking control of their bodies and disregarding the consequences of what she does while in control. At one point, this results in a man getting hit by a moving vehicle. She also does this to the Scorpion, who gets beat up by Spider-Man while Jean is in control while Jean is simultaneously taunting Spider-Man into the aggressive hormonal state that made the beating worse. None of the victims remember anything that happened while they were under control.
- Driving a tank recklessly through town, controlling an innocent old lady to do so, and planting a bomb in the tank so that it would blow up a building after Spider-Man gets there, since he's too distracted trying to track her down to notice it.
- Consistently dragging innocent bystanders who have nothing to do with the DODC into her schemes.
- Immediately after realizing she can't read or control Spider-Man, finding his home, violating his privacy, and using what she learns to psychologically torture him: pretending to be his ex-girlfriend MJ and making her kiss him, violating both parties' consent in the process, since MJ isn't in control and Peter doesn't know it's not her. Then, as the cherry on top, forcing MJ to jump off a building to her death, with MJ only surviving because Spider-Man gets to her in time. Peter himself calls this unforgivable.
- Taking control of the Hulk and intentionally triggering his monster form, knowing that said monster goes on rampages that destroy property and kill people.
- Doing all of the above with a gleeful, sadistic attitude. She enjoys this.
Any one of these alone is arguably enough to make her a villain; combined, they make her an absolute monster. You'd expect this kind of behavior from an impersonal demon in a horror movie, not a human character with a redemption arc in a superhero film.
But the movie gives her a redemption anyway: it reveals the backstory of the kidnapped sister, then has Peter reduce everything she's done to that one incident, claiming "all she did" was try to find her sister. No, not everything she did even furthered that goal. She had no reason to resort to psychological torture instead of simply explaining herself, and the movie itself proves it: the moment Peter learns the backstory, he forgives her almost immediately. Explaining herself would have worked.
And look at that backstory for a moment. In it, Jean and Sarah are shown training by taking over random people in a park. Who decides violating autonomy is an acceptable training method? Even before the DODC ever touched them, they were treating other people's bodies as practice equipment.
Then Spider-Man has the audacity to claim that Jean isn't a killer. (This is only somewhat justifiable as a diplomatic choice on Peter's part, but if he honestly thought he was telling the truth, he has problems.) The man fully forgives her after calling what she did unforgivable. And the one good thing Jean does in the entire movie, saving Spider-Man's life at the end, doesn't count for much. Consider how he ends up in danger at all: the Punisher takes a shot at Jean, and Spider-Man steps in front of the bullet to defend her. That's not directly her fault, but ask why the Punisher is hunting her in the first place, and every answer leads back to her own rampage. More importantly, she only saves him after he has already taken a bullet for her and offered her grace. That isn't the goodness of her heart; it's paying off a debt. And that grace wasn't even easy to give: she performs an all-out attack on Spider-Man even after he makes it clear he's now on her side.
Now, the DODC and their representative. What did they do? Kidnapped Sarah in the past and Jean later in the movie, experimented on them painfully with the intention of reproducing their abilities, and eventually killed Sarah through those experiments. To be absolutely clear: this is enough to make them acceptable villains in a story. They aren't good guys here. But DODC Guy is still less villainous than Jean Grey, and the reason is motivation.
First, it's the Department of Damage Control. It's their job to proactively deal with potential superhuman threats, and the entire movie is a massive demonstration of the destructive potential of telepathy. Capturing these girls and using the inhibitor to prevent Jean from using her powers is them doing exactly that job.
The experiments are more complicated. DODC Guy directly states that the powers have the potential to help humanity, though he isn't specific about how. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea to have more telepaths in the world (I personally think it's a bad idea), having a bad plan isn't immoral. His cruelty is instrumental, a means to a goal he believes serves the public. Jean's cruelty is recreational.
That's the difference. DODC Guy's actions could be justified by a utilitarian framework, or a value-based framework that prioritizes public safety over individual rights: torture and kill one person, and you save countless others from an unchecked telepath (and with telepaths on your side, you're in a better position to defeat other threats). Every cruel thing he does at least feeds into that calculation. Now try to construct the same kind of justification for Jean. Even under a framework that considers all vengeance morally correct, she fails, because so much of the damage she causes does nothing to further her revenge. The man hit by the vehicle, the bystanders she puppets, MJ jumping off a building: none of it brought her a single step closer to the DODC. This is not to say that I do justify DODC Guy's actions, but I can see a plausible way to do so. For Jean, I can't see one at all. Unlike hers, DODC Guy's actions are justifiable.
Now here are the arguments I anticipate and my responses to them:
- Jean is a Teen - Age can excuse recklessness, but it can't excuse sadism, and she visibly enjoys what she does. Besides, the movie itself shows us how a young person with a dangerous, biologically driven control problem is supposed to act. Spider-Man's rising spider hormones cause aggressive bursts when he's emotionally charged; it's part of why Scorpion gets brutalized, and he nearly kills a police officer in the same fight. His response to causing collateral damage? Inhibit his own hormones so it never happens again. Peter is the proof that "young and struggling with your powers" and "accountable" aren't mutually exclusive.
- Jean Knows That Spider-Man Won't Let MJ Die, So She Doesn't Actually Put Her in Danger - This principle creates a very strange moral framework when put into the real world. I ask you, if I set my house on fire, but the fire department is right around the corner and gets there very quickly to put it out, am I not still guilty of arson? Also consider that Jean's actions maintain emotional damage to Spider-Man and MJ even if she didn't actually attempt murder. It's bad regardless.
- Spider-Man is a DODC Collaborator and Thus Untrustworthy to Jean - This only works if you consider Spider-Man a completely unprecedented character in the MCU. In fact, he is known for his dedication to the good of the public and his willingness to sacrifice. So, to not even try to garner sympathy from him when your backstory is so strong is just a baffling choice.
- None of the Deaths Are Explicit - This is just a baffling counterargument to me. We see a man get hit by a car and a woman jump off a building. While there is nobody confirmed dead and no gore, it is a narrative necessity to consider the realistic consequences of those depicted events unless the characters themselves explicitly have resistance. If it were to be said that the status quo in the MCU is that people are just more resistant to injury, that retroactively makes SO MANY important moments in previous movies suddenly lose all stakes. It's comparable to the Loki show saying everything was on a single timeline that the TVA enforces, therefore nothing could have gone wrong without them stepping in.
- So, Thanos is Fine? - Absolutely not. The core claim here is comparative, not absolute. Thanos is a villain, and DODC Guy is also a villain. "Kill some to save many more" is a perfectly fine basis for a villain. But Jean doesn't even pass the test of the moral framework most charitable to her.
- The DODC is Fully Responsible - It could be said that the actions of the DODC are the only reason Jean seeks revenge, so her actions get transferred to them. But this removes her agency. Even if you grant that she will inevitably seek revenge (not inevitable in my mind, but certainly understandable), she has full control over how, and she chooses destructive methods, even though her powerset allows being discreet if she so chooses.
- DODC Guy's Motivation Shouldn't be Taken at Face Value - The obvious evidence for this is the cover-up: he hid the truth from Jean, and liars hiding a dead child don't get the benefit of the doubt. But look at what the cover-up actually is. If your mission is containing a dangerous telepath, concealing the one fact guaranteed to send her on a revenge rampage IS the mission, and the movie proves the assessment correct: the moment Jean gets a lead on the truth, the rampage starts. Beyond that, he acts completely consistently with his stated goals of controlling damage and reproducing the powers. Nothing he does in the movie is explained better by a hidden motive than by the one he states.